http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ A search of MERLOT materials Copyright 1997-2013 MERLOT. All rights reserved. Thu, 23 May 2013 20:23:05 PDT Thu, 23 May 2013 20:23:05 PDT http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/images/merlot.gif http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ 44 34 http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=241187 This is an interesting learning activity from the Library of Congress on the subject of political cartoons.  This would be appropriate for Social Studies, Humanities, Government , Journalism or History classes.  Student are taught how to analyze and decode cartoons and about persuasive techniques often employed by political cartoonists to promote their individual message such as symbolism, exxageration and analogy.  Students view examples of various political cartoons and then test themselves on which typical cartoonist techniques are depicted in each.  In the "Learn More" section, the same cartoons are shown and there is a brief expert audio analysis of each one.  This section also contains links to biographical sketches for each of the cartoonists.    http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=736821 Advanced graphic design tools have become accessible to nearly everybody, as computerized pagination programs such as InDesign can offer the power of of the professional on any home computer. But easy access to software doesn't necessarily guarantee compelling designs. This class covers basic principles of graphic design for print. Included are readings, videos, illustrations, exercises, and self-guided tutorials for both InDesign and Photoshop. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=640619 Calvin O. Schrag was interviewed by Laureano Ralon on January 24th, 2011 as part of the Figure/Ground Communication scholarly interview series.Dr. Schrag is George Ade Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University. He was a graduate of Yale and Harvard, a Fulbright Scholar for research at Heidelberg and Oxford, and a Guggenheim Fellow at Freiburg University. His published works have been translated into eleven foreign languages, and among his most famous books are Existence and Freedom, God as Otherwise than Being: Toward a Semantics of the Gift, Convergence amidst Difference, Experience and Being, Radical Reflection and the Origin of the Human Sciences, Communicative Praxis and the Space of Subjectivity, The Resources of Rationality, and The Self after Postmodernity. Professor Schrag has been invited to partake in seventy five lectures in the US and abroad. He is the only living member of the original group of five philosophers who designed the format for the current Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, which will celebrate its 50th birthday in October of this year. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=666148 © Christine M. Tracy and Figure/Ground Communication. Dr. Tracy was interviewed by Gina Conley on June 5th, 2012 as part of the Figure/Ground scholarly interview series: http://www.figureground.ca/interviewsChristine M. Tracy is a media ecologist, journalism professor, and a former reporter. She holds a Ph.D. from Rensselaer in Troy, NY, where she studied the evolution of media and worked as a founding editor of Computer-Mediated Communication, one of the Web’s first e-zines. Tracy wrote The Newsphere: Understanding the News and Information Environment (Peter Lang 2012) to combat disillusionment with news. She coined the word “newsphere” to depict a more dynamic, interactive, and responsible news environment that builds on the integral theories of scientist and phenomenologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Reviewers describe The Newsphere as “one of the very few truly practical and professional texts in media ecology, and one of the very few truly philosophical, ecological and sociological journalism news texts.” Tracy’s work has focused on technological changes to news creation and dissemination. She is currently building a news incubator in southeast Michigan and working with scholars from Georgetown’s Woodstock Theological Center to extend the work of Teilhard de Chardin. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=640252 Professor Eric McLuhan was interviewed by Laureano Ralon on August 1st, 2010 as part of the Figure/Ground Communication scholarly interview series (www.figureground.ca/interviews/)Dr. McLuhan is an internationally known lecturer on communication and media, the son of Herbert Marshall McLuhan. He has over 30 years of teaching experience in subjects ranging from high-speed reading techniques to English literature, media, and communication theory. He has taught at many colleges and universities in both the United States and Canada. He has published articles in magazines and professional journals since 1964 on media, perception, and literature. He co-authored City as Classroom (Irwin, 1977), with Marshall McLuhan and Kathryn (Hutchon) Kawasaki, and assisted McLuhan with research and writing of The Medium is the Massage, War and Peace in the Global Village, Culture is Our Business, From Cliché to Archetype, Take Today: The Executive as Drop-Out, and most notably, Laws of Media: The New Science (University of Toronto Press, 1988). In this interview with Figure/Ground Communications, Eric focuses primarily on the genesis of Laws of Media: The New Science. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=640269 Mark L. Johnson was interviewed via Skype by Laureano Ralon on November 15th, 2011 as part of the Figure/Ground Communication scholarly interview series (www.figureground.ca/interviews/)Dr. Johnson is Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. He is well-known for contributions to embodied philosophy, cognitive science and cognitive linguistics, some of which he has co-authored with George Lakoff such as Metaphors We Live By and Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought (Basic Books, 1999) His latest book, The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding (Chicago, 2007), further investigates aspects of embodied meaning and cognition that have traditionally been ignored or under-valued in mainstream philosophy. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=642215 Dr. Levinson was interviewed by Laureano Ralon on August 7th, 2010 as part of the Figure/Ground Communication scholarly interview series: http://www.figureground.ca/interviews Paul Levinson is a professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City. As a commentator on media, popular culture, and science fiction Levinson has been interviewed more than 500 times on local, national and international television and radio. He is frequently quoted in newspapers and magazines around the world and his op-eds have appeared in such major papers as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York’s Newsday, and the New York Sun. He is also an accomplished science fiction writer; hosts four podcasts, and maintains several blogs. In April 2009, The Chronicle of Higher Education named him one of Twitter’s top ten “High Fliers”. Prior to his academic career, Levinson was a songwriter, singer and record producer in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with recordings by the Vogues, Donna Marie of the Archies and Ellie Greenwich. As a radio producer he worked with Murray the K and Wolfman Jack. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=640261 Steven Galt Crowell was interviewed by Laureano Ralon on June 22th, 2011 as part of the Figure/Ground Communication scholarly interview series (www.figureground.ca/interviews/)Dr. Crowell (PhD, Yale) is Joseph and Joanna Nazro Mullen Professor of Philosophy at Rice University, where he has taught since 1983. He is the author of numerous articles on issues and figures in what is called “Continental” philosophy, but his primary fields are transcendental philosophy and phenomenology. Areas of particular interest include philosophy of mind, meta-ethics, philosophy of art, and philosophy of history. He is the author of Husserl, Heidegger, and the Space of Meaning: Paths Toward Transcendental Phenomenology (2001), which lays out the neo-Kantian background of the phenomenological project of investigating intentionality and argues for a closer relation between Husserl and Heidegger than is usually recognized. Subsequent work has explored the dependence of meaning or intelligibility on our responsiveness to the normative, or “measure.” He is co-editor, with Jeff Malpas, of Transcendental Heidegger (2007) and editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Existentialism. Crowell also serves as co-editor of the journal Husserl Studies. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=565884 Filmmakers may assume that because they show something on the screen, the viewer has noticed it but, as this short video demonstrates, viewers may miss important visual elements if their attention is focused elsewhere. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=736819 This class for beginning mass media photographers and photojournalists includes illustrated exercises, practical principles, videos, readings and portfolios. Also available is a nine-part self-guided Photoshop tutorial, and downloadable photos for practice.